PAM Awards 2006 get rolling
Mar 17, 2006
The fourth Pearl of Africa Music Awards were launched last evening at The Venue in Kampala with Celtel Uganda and Bell Lager as the flagship sponsors.
By Joseph Batte
The fourth Pearl of Africa Music Awards were launched last evening at The Venue in Kampala with Celtel Uganda and Bell Lager as the flagship sponsors.
The colourful launch left no doubt that 2006 would be a year of expansion for the PAM Awards.
Besides the traditional upcountry towns of Mbarara, Jinja and Mbale, the awards programme will expand to Fort Portal and Lira.
The biggest addition for UTAKE fans was the announcement by the organising chairman, Isaac Mulindwa, that the awards will also be launched in Nairobi, Kigali and Dar-es-Salaam.
Mulindwa said they introduced two categories for each East African country including best male and female artiste categories. “Locally, we shall introduce a category for the best songwriter, bringing the number of awards to 34. Next year, we will increase the number to 35 when we introduce the album of year award.â€
Mulindwa said the nominees will be picked by registered artistes and media houses only.
He said artistes will be required to register with the PAM Awards organising committee in order to be eligible for voting. Currently, over 1,300 artistes are registered.
Any artiste who has produced a new song between July 30, 2005 and July 30, 2006, is eligible for nomination.
The forms will be forwarded to auditors, Ernest & Young, who will compute the votes and come up with a list of four nominees in each category.
The public will vote via SMS to a designated number.
The public’s vote will constitute 40% of the total vote per category.
Mulindwa said the summation of votes cast by the media houses, the panel of judges and the public will determine the final winner of each category to be announced at the PAM Awards ceremony in October.
The fourth Pearl of Africa Music Awards were launched last evening at The Venue in Kampala with Celtel Uganda and Bell Lager as the flagship sponsors.
The colourful launch left no doubt that 2006 would be a year of expansion for the PAM Awards.
Besides the traditional upcountry towns of Mbarara, Jinja and Mbale, the awards programme will expand to Fort Portal and Lira.
The biggest addition for UTAKE fans was the announcement by the organising chairman, Isaac Mulindwa, that the awards will also be launched in Nairobi, Kigali and Dar-es-Salaam.
Mulindwa said they introduced two categories for each East African country including best male and female artiste categories. “Locally, we shall introduce a category for the best songwriter, bringing the number of awards to 34. Next year, we will increase the number to 35 when we introduce the album of year award.â€
Mulindwa said the nominees will be picked by registered artistes and media houses only.
He said artistes will be required to register with the PAM Awards organising committee in order to be eligible for voting. Currently, over 1,300 artistes are registered.
Any artiste who has produced a new song between July 30, 2005 and July 30, 2006, is eligible for nomination.
The forms will be forwarded to auditors, Ernest & Young, who will compute the votes and come up with a list of four nominees in each category.
The public will vote via SMS to a designated number.
The public’s vote will constitute 40% of the total vote per category.
Mulindwa said the summation of votes cast by the media houses, the panel of judges and the public will determine the final winner of each category to be announced at the PAM Awards ceremony in October.